REFILE-Chinese Mongolians make rare "protest" after death of herder

BEIJING May 25 (Reuters) - A large group of ethnic
Mongolians protested in front of a government building in
northern China on Wednesday angered by inaction over the death
of a herder, a rights group said, in a rare instance of unrest
by the minority ethnic group.

The New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights
Information Centre said that almost 2,000 students marched to
the city government building in Xilinhot in China's Inner
Mongolia.

They went "to urge the Chinese authorities to respect the
rights and dignity of Mongolian herders" in Inner Mongolia, the
group said in an emailed statement.

It was the latest in a series of protests by ethnic
Mongolians in response to the "brutal" killing of a Mongolian
herder by a Chinese coal truck driver, the group added.

Pictures posted on Chinese microblogging sites showed at
least 100 people, many of whom appeared to be students, gathered
in front of the city government.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the
authenticity of the pictures or when they were taken.

The Xilinhot government did not answer repeated telephone
calls seeking comment.

However, in a statement on its website (www.xlgl.gov.cn) on
Wednesday, the government said police had arrested two Han
Chinese for homicide.

The area around Xilinhot is home to many coal mines.

Decades of migration by the majority Han Chinese have made
Chinese Mongolians a minority in their own land, officially
comprising less than 20 percent of the roughly 24 million
population of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.

Inner Mongolia, which covers more than a tenth of China's
land mass and borders Mongolia proper, is supposed to offer a
high degree of self-rule. In practice, though, Mongolians say
the Han run the show.

While protests in Inner Mongolia are far rarer than in Tibet
or Xinjiang, two other parts of China with restive native
populations, the Chinese government has still taken a tough line
on Mongolians who seek greater respect of their rights.